The Theme Of Love In The Short Story 'Beginners'

Love is the underlying motive behind a lot of our actions. Love is the reason why we form special bonds with others and why some create a life together. Yet few of us are experts at love. When we are asked to define love, most of us are perplexed by dissimilar discernments of the intangible neurological condition. We thus start to feel inept. Still we have an idea of what love is and most would agree that it is more easily experienced than defined. In the short story “Beginners,” Carver fruitlessly attempts to define love through each of the characters’ distinct insight and encounter with love.

Nick, the narrator, and his friend Herb are sitting around a kitchen table in Albuquerque, New Mexico, drinking gin with their wives, Laura and Terri.

The elusion of love gives it a unique and mesmerizing quality. Although Terri cannot explain why she loved her abusive husband, the reader can conceives that the situation goes beyond plain words. She had an intuitive sentiment, which is more powerful and precise than words can ever illustrate. Nick, who rarely speaks in the conversation, makes physical signals that are more pure and clearer than language can ever communicate. He shows his affection to Terri by holding her hand and touching her leg. Their inability to explain their love for each other signifies the mystery of love. We depend on logic to define it because it helps us figure out so much in life, such as solve problems and answer questions. Being a doctor, Herb is accustomed to working with the tangible and understanding how things work. This is perhaps why he has a tenacious struggle to define love and appears callow when it comes to loving. Love, though, is different. It is not contingent on rationality. We must be willing to take risks and listen to what our heart is telling us. By the end of the conversation, the friends have become very intoxicated. This is a reflection of their escalated confusion and hopelessness to express an articulate definition of

At the beginning of the story, the narrator describes, “the afternoon sunlight was like a presence in the room” (Carver 5). Their optimism on their conception on love develops into pessimism. At the end of the story, the narrator notices, “the blue layer of sky had given way now and was turning dark like the rest. But the stars had appeared. I recognized Venus and, farther off and to the side, not as bright but unmistakably there on the horizon, Mars” (Carver